


The Mix 'n' Mingle Machine

by phoreverphan



Category: Phandom/The Fantastic Foursome (YouTube RPF)
Genre: AU, Fluff, M/M, Phan - Freeform, Phan Fluff, based off Phineas and Ferb, does that mean I should tag it as Phineas and Ferb???, phineas and ferb - Freeform
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-03-30
Updated: 2018-03-30
Packaged: 2019-04-15 23:28:14
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,050
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14151687
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/phoreverphan/pseuds/phoreverphan
Summary: PJ wakes Dan up to go see a strange new ride that has been installed in their neighborhood. He meets someone he would love to impress, but alas, his lack of social interaction seems to have ruined that for him. Or that’s what he thinks.





	The Mix 'n' Mingle Machine

**Author's Note:**

> this is based off a Phineas and Ferb episode (like all great things) called Cheer Up Candace and I wrote this as a birthday present for my sister who loves Phineas and Ferb. It also happens to be the longest oneshot ive ever written, so im pretty happy about that

Dan rubbed his eyes, looking at the piece of paper in his hand.

 

**Meet and greet folks off the streets!**

**You’ve only got a second to make a good impression in the**

**Mix ‘n’ Mingle Machine!**

 

“Isn’t it great?” PJ asked, bumping his shoulder against Dan’s enthusiastically.

 

“You woke me up for this?” Dan groaned, pulling his duvet back over his head in an attempt to go back to sleep.

 

PJ pulled the duvet off him again, grabbing Dan’s shoulders and pulling him out of bed. “C’mon Dan, we’re going to this, okay? You haven’t been outside for like a week. It’ll be good for you. Put some clothes on, we’re leaving in twenty minutes.”

 

Dan made a sound comparable to that of a rhino, slowly standing up and walking towards his closet.

 

He grabbed a black shirt, pulling it over his head and smiling in spite of himself. Now that he had woken up a bit, he decided it was nice to see PJ excited about something. And besides, he and PJ had been friends for a long time and had pretty similar taste in what they thought was fun. There was a pretty good chance that Dan would actually enjoy whatever this Mix ‘n’ Mingle thing was, despite the fact that it sounded like it included social interaction, which was certainly  _ not _ Dan’s forte.

 

After a couple of minutes (and a few yells from PJ to hurry up), Dan found himself walking out the door, squinting at the bright light from the sun. Wasn’t England supposed to be grey and rainy? God, he swore the universe was conspiring against him. Among other  _ terrible _ misfortunes, he hadn’t had a date in 2 years, his best friend was making him go outside, and now he was nearly  _ blinded _ .

 

“-and today I saw a two-headed shark.”

 

Dan’s head snapped around to look at his companion. “What?”

 

“Oh, so you are listening.” PJ pushed his hair out of his eyes, grinning a little at the sheepish look on Dan’s face. “I was saying, maybe you could finally meet someone with this. You know, all the selection of a club without the anxiety stopping you from talking to people. Plus, if people don’t like your awful jokes, they don’t have to stick around and pretend to laugh.”

 

Dan flicked PJ on the head, smirking at the other man’s terrible attempt at keeping a straight face. “Ignoring that bit at the end there, I guess you kinda have a point. I desperately need help, maybe something good will finally happen. It better, after you dragged me out of bed and all.”

 

PJ said nothing, and Dan looked at him in confusion. “Peej?”

 

“Oh my god, Dan, look up.”

 

Dan raised his eyes to the huge figure looming above him, what he could only guess was the Mix ‘n’ Mingle machine.

 

The machine seemed to have two parts, an inner gear and an outer gear, each with people strapped to them so that different pairs of people could be made. The gears were each at least 20 feet across- Dan had no idea this many people lived in his neighborhood- and the whole anomaly was raised maybe 30 feet off the ground, so Dan was craning his neck to get a good look at it.

 

Who the hell would make this? The same thing could have been achieved with two lines of people walking in opposite directions. To be fair, though, this looked a lot more fun than that would be. He looked over at PJ.

 

The other man was seemingly frozen in awe, his mouth hanging open in surprise at the size of the attraction.

 

“You seem pretty impressed,” Dan said, trying to keep the amazement out of his voice purely because he knew PJ would gloat over the fact that he had gotten Dan out of bed for a good reason.

 

“What? Yeah, just, this is great, right? Like I thought it was gonna be something like a carousel, you know? But this is  _ way _ better!”

 

“Well if you stop staring for a minute, we can actually have a go on it.” Dan hooked his arm around PJ’s, walking him towards what looked like the end of the queue.

 

The line was quite long, with maybe 20 people in it, but it was moving quickly. A sign hanging at the front of the roped off area said

 

**Mix ‘n’ Mingle Machine | £3 per ride**

**We suggest you wait between rides or you will definitely get sick.**

**Do not ride if you have a weak stomach or are wary of spinning at 30 kilometers an hour.**

**Have fun!**

 

Dan and PJ joined the queue, both digging in their pockets for the money.

 

They reached the front of the line in just 5 minutes, where a man in a white and orange striped shirt held out his hand for the money. He was wearing a party hat the color of his skin so from far away his head looked vaguely triangular. He also had a name tag that said ‘Phineas.’

 

“Wow, you’re really going for the Phineas and Ferb thing, aren’t you?” PJ asked, handing the man his money.

 

“We got the idea for the whole ride from the show, may as well give them credit everywhere we can.”

 

“I guess if you’re gonna go that route you may as well go all the way, right?” Dan said, a bit bemused. This certainly was strange, but to be fair, this man had clearly been spending his time more productively than Dan, who at any given time could be seen with the TV on, his laptop open, and his phone in his hand.

 

Dan handed over his money as well, and he and PJ passed ‘Phineas’ and entered the ride. A very normal looking attendant greeted them, helping them to get strapped into adjacent seats. Dan looked over to PJ a little bit warily to find that PJ had grasped onto the handles of his seat and was grinning very widely, staring straight ahead in what Dan hoped was excitement.

 

The attendant strapped a few more people in, then walked over to a control panel of sorts and leaned into the microphone.

 

“Welcome to the Mix ‘N’ Mingle Machine. Each of you will be meeting twenty different people today, and you’ll get twenty seconds with each of them. Are you ready to MIX and MINGLE?”

 

Dan rolled his eyes a bit as PJ, along with what sounded like several small children, shouted out “Yes!” in reply.

 

With one last “Here we go!” from the attendant, the ride lurched into movement and Dan found himself face to face with a teenage girl with two lip piercings and an eyebrow bar.

 

“You look exactly the way I wanted to look when I was 14.” Dan said, cringing a little at his bad attempt at a conversation starter, but brightening again when the girl said: “You look like someone I would’ve followed on MySpace.”

 

Dan took a breath, trying to think of something to say, when the ride lurched again. He barely got out a “Bye!” before he was swept along to the next person.

 

There was a boy with short brown hair who happily told Dan that he was getting his braces off soon, and an older woman with a dress that had a picture of Severus Snape.

 

A little counter by Dan’s right wrist seemed to be keeping track of how many people Dan had met so far, and he glanced down at it for a moment, realizing he was on person nineteen. A feeling of disappointment washed over him. It was silly, because of course Dan could get in line again and keep going around on the ride. He was enjoying this a lot more than he thought he would.

 

A voice pulled him out of his thoughts. “Whatcha looking at there?”

 

Dan looked up. He opened his mouth but was unable to speak.

 

The man sitting in front of him was simply breathtaking.

 

The black hair, cut in a similar way to Dan’s but somehow looking so much more stylish. The blue eyes, making him look so knowledgeable despite the clear smirk on his face. Everything down to the red plaid shirt, making everything else about him so much more pronounced and beautiful.

 

“You’re a talkative one, aren’t you?” the man said light-heartedly. Dan was sure he was being obvious with his staring, but he couldn’t be bothered to care.

 

“I’m Phil.” He said. Dan opened and closed his mouth a few times, searching for his voice. After a moment, he was able to reach out his hand for a handshake and say “Dan.”

 

Phil giggled a bit at the formality, but stuck his hand out too, saying “Nice to meet you,” in his most professional sounding voice.

 

“You are beautiful,” Dan blurted out, before slapping his hand over his mouth in an effort to undo what he had just said.

 

Phil laughed again, his tongue poking out between his teeth in a way that made Dan swoon even more.

 

But despite being seemingly unable to take his eyes off Phil, the lack of social ability was stronger, and Dan buried his head in his hands, lamenting the fact that he had finally met someone he wanted to get to know, and he had ruined it in the first twenty seconds. Dan didn’t take his face out of his hands when the ride lurched again, and only moved when the attendant leaned into the mic again to tell everyone the ride was over.

 

Dan stood up, face burning with embarrassment, and made his way over to PJ.

 

“Oh my god, Dan, wasn’t that cool? I met so many people, this is _ great _ ! We should go again. I think I have more money. Do you? I can pay for you if you need me to. Or we could go back home to get more, right? Like, I don’t think that’s a problem–” PJ faltered for a moment when he realized his babbling wasn’t registering with Dan.

 

“Hey, Dan, what’s wrong?” he asked, as the two made their way down the small staircase and back onto the field the ride was in.

 

“Oh, nothing.” Dan sighed. “I just made a fool of myself again. You know, as usual.”

 

“Oh. I’m sorry, I thought this would be good for you. We can go home now, I don’t need to go again.” PJ began walking back towards the pavement.

 

Dan followed a few steps behind, his shoulders scrunched up like a turtle being prodded by a toddler.

 

They had just reached the edge of the field and were turning onto the street when Dan felt a tap on his shoulder.

 

He turned around to find Phil standing behind him, biting his lip in what looked like apprehension.

 

“Hey, Dan? I know you got embarrassed earlier– but believe me when I tell you that I was only laughing because I was surprised. I wouldn’t have had the audacity to do that. And I wouldn’t have had the audacity to do this if you hadn’t done that earlier. So with that out of the way, would you want to get coffee sometime?”

 

Dan let out a small gasp of surprise. He had been expecting that Phil would have been as mortified as he was. The fact that Phil was standing there at all was more than Dan had predicted, and now he was asking him out.

 

“If you don’t want to, we don’t have to, I just thought–” Phil stuttered out, clearly taken aback by Dan’s silence.

 

“Oh, no, that’s not what I– I was just surprised– I– I would love to go out sometime. Or now? There’s a Starbucks a block from here.” Dan looked at PJ. “If that’s okay with you.”

 

PJ nodded enthusiastically. “Fine with me, I’m glad you’re finally getting some action. I’m gonna have another go on the ride.”

 

Dan smiled at his friend, then directed his attention back to Phil. “Ready to go?”

 

“Yeah! I hope you end up liking me for more than my looks.” Phil winked, and the two walked off towards the coffee shop, Dan with much more bounce in his step than he had had when he woke up this morning.


End file.
